The vast majority of current day computer systems make use of one or more printed circuit boards (PCBs) mounted within a computer system's chassis by way of screws protruding through holes formed in those PCBs. However, with such use of screws comes the attendant disadvantage and inconvenience of the screws being loose components.
An increasingly commonplace solution is captive screws, i.e., screws that are held captive to the PCB with which they are associated by way of a captivating component often referred to as a ferrule, or in some cases, referred to as a retainer. A ferrule, or retainer, retains itself to the PCB, and in turn, retains a screw to the PCB by retaining the screw to itself. Various forms of ferrules exist, but with various drawbacks including risk of damage to the PCB and/or requirements for a hole that is much larger than would actually be required for the screw to be used, alone. A further drawback is that many of the current types of ferrule protrude through the PCB, and this protrusion can be difficult to accommodate in various chassis designs. Yet another disadvantage is that at the time the PCB is assembled, the ferrule typically requires a separate step to be installed, thereby adding to the time and/or cost required when installing components on a PCB (also commonly referred to as ‘populating’ a PCB).